《Orbital Station 47c》Chapter 1: Fire, Death, and Other Bad Shit To Wake Up To
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AQUARIAN ARM TRADING COMPANY SPACEPORT 47c
CURRENT LOCATION: UNKNOWN, ORBIT PATTERN OF GAS GIANT DETECTED
CURRENT POPULATION:
2 SENTIENTS CONTAINED IN MEDBAY CRYOPODS, STATUS UNKNOWN
12 SUB-SENTIENTS
23 ORGANIC BIOFORMS
ZERO INCOMING TRANSMISSIONS, REROUTE DETECTED
5467 OUTGOING TRANSMISSIONS (PAUSED, WAITING ON APPROVAL QUEUE. CALCULATING TIME TO SEND: NULL. NETWORK CONNECTIVITY OFFLINE.)
MAINFRAME HOSTING LOCAL AI AT 2 PERCENT
PRIMARY AI SYSTEM STATUS: CRITICAL, REBOOT IN PROGRESS
SUBROUTINE AI SYSTEM STATUS: ONLINE, FUNCTIONAL
EMERGENCY BEACON DETECTED (53)
RUNNING QUARANTINE PROTOCOLS, PATHOGEN UNDETECTED BUT SUSPECTED, 72 PERCENT LIKELY
SYSTEM STATUS: MULTIPLE HULL BREACHES
ENGINEERING OFFLINE
POWER GENERATION OFFLINE
EMERGENCY GENERATOR 13 PERCENT
DEFENSES OFFLINE
LIFE SUPPORT 1 PERCENT
MEDBAY 12 PERCENT [7 PERCENT CRYOPOD MAINTENANCE]
BIOFARM OFFLINE
MINING PLATFORM OFFLINE
SHUTTLEBAY VENTED
LEVELS 1-4
POWER LIMITED: LOW POWER MODE ENABLED
LIFE SUPPORT 42 PERCENT
AI REBOOT IN PROGRESS [OPERATING CAPACITY 2 PERCENT]
ARTGRAV ZERO
PARTIALLY REPAIRED HULL FRACTURES IN LEVELS 3-4
ATMO LEAKAGE <23 PERCENT: PATCHED
ESTIMATED TIME TO REPAIR: 4,672 STANDARD SHIFT CYCLES
LEVEL 5-7 OFFLINE
ZERO PERCENT LIFE SUPPORT CAPABLE
ARTGRAV ZERO
ATMO LEAKAGE 100 PERCENT
ESTIMATED TIME TO REPAIR: NULL
LEVEL 8-LOWER CANNOT BE ACCESSED BY SCANNERS
LIFE SUPPORT UNKNOWN
ARTGRAV UNKNOWN
HULL INTEGRITY UNKNOWN
ESTIMATED TIME TO REPAIR: NULL
Swimming back up through darkness. Small pains register first. Floating in soothing nothingness is both comforting and scary. Something bad had happened and she can’t remember what.
Pulsing out-- some points along her limbs and torso hurt worse than others. It’s as if her arms are asleep and also have papercuts doused in salty lemon juice. She can’t feel her lower torso or legs. She can tell that something is really wrong, but her brain might as well be porridge. What’s the last thing she can remember?
Fire. She had been attacked. There was a lot of blood and panic. Fire-filled suborbital mortars were falling like rain and she had resolved that at least death would be quick. Screams of the dying coupled with unanswered prayers of the imminent dead. Burning flesh and hair. The smell of blood and entrails. Children crushed by debris in the arms of their crushed parents, bits of persons shredded by shrapnel, fire sweeping buildings, soldiers as petrified as civilians. Death from above. Hell on earth. No salvation.
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ARTGRAV IN LEVELS 3-4 UP 50 PERCENT. HULL PATCH FAILURE IMMINENT.
What the holy hell.
Okay.
So.
Panic solves nothing. She’s alive. If she’s alive, there may be others who made it too. All she has to do it wait for help. Relax into the panic.
Take a breath. She’s not breathing that she can feel.
Okay.
Relax all thoughts into the panic. She vaguely remembers being trained for dire situations. Either she’s dying and it’ll be over soon, or she’s alive and she has to deal with it. Either way, she needs to calm it down.
Relax into the panic. Like painful yoga, distance running, or dental work delivered by a sadist.
Lean into it.
First step is to assess the situation and take stock of her surroundings. It is quiet, but that only means she might have been deafened by percussive blasts. The porridge brain might be a sign of concussion, skull fracture, or critical blood loss. The lack of feeling in her lower limbs means she probably sustained a spinal injury. She feels like there are strips of flesh missing from a large portion of her everything. The pain she feels in her torso could mean internal damage. She feels cold, so blood loss is highly likely. Can she open her eyes?
INTERNAL SECURITY CAMERAS OFFLINE. BOOT INTERNAL SECURITY PROTOCOLS?
>Y/N
>Um. Yes?
Her eyes slam open and she has too many. The sensory inputs mix with her porridge brain and all thoughts stop.
ERROR: PROCESSING POWER INSUFFICIENT. REROUTING POWER ALLOTMENT FOR LEVELS 2-7 TO LEVEL 1. REROUTING ALL REPAIR DRONES TO MAINFRAME. REROUTING ALL REPAIR MATERIALS TO LEVEL 1. REROUTING REPAIR PRIORITY TO LEVEL 1. ESTIMATED TIME TO REPAIR: 1424 DAYS, 15 HOURS. SYSTEM OVERRIDE TO HARD REBOOT. EMERGENCY BEACON LAUNCHED. EMERGENCY BEACON SUPPLY DEPLETED. EMERGENCY MESSAGE SENT TO QUEUE. WAITING ON TRANSMISSION APPROVAL… OFFLINE. ESTIMATED SYSTEM REBOOT DOWNTIME: 1424 DAYS, 15 HOURS. POWER TO LIFE SUPPORT, ARTGRAV, AND ALL SUBSYSTEMS REROUTED TO LEVEL 1. LEVELS 2-7 SEALED INTERNALLY. SUB-SENTIENTS/ BIOFORMS EVACUATED TO LEVEL 1 CRYO STORAGE. ESTIMATED TIME TO EVAC: 12 HOURS.
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She falls back into the comforting darkness asking what the everloving fuck a bioform is.
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